Adult Education
and the Public Library
in 19th Century Wolverhampton

Prior to the advent of the Free Library classes the history of adult
education in Wolverhampton is a chronicle of good intent and subsequent
failure. A number of

educational bodies rose to prominence for a decade or so, only to
flounder for a variety of reasons. However, adult education was
considered important enough in nineteenth century Wolverhampton to
warrant repeated efforts to bring about a stable and well organised
institute of adult education. Despite all previous attempts, this
longed-for ideal did not materialise until the Library started to
provide adult evening classes in the autumn of 1873.

The Tradesmen's and Mechanics'
Institute

The origins of adult education in the town can be traced back to the
Wolverhampton Tradesmen's and Mechanics' Institute founded in 1827
[J. Jones "Historical Sketch of the Art and Literary Institutions of
Wolverhampton, 1794-1897" pub 1897 p.35]. Based on George Birkbeck's
Mechanics' Institute, which had been established in Glasgow in 1823 "to
give working men cheap courses of lectures an science" [The Concise
Dictionary of National Biography 1882 [1953 edit.] p.105T] the
Wolverhampton "Institute" was first based in a private house in the
town's King Street. Supported by local entrepreneurs and bankers
[described by Fogarty as "thorough going Liberals"], (N.
Fogerty "An Analysis of the Reasons behind the Decline and Ultimate
Collapse of the Wolverhampton Athenaeum and Mechanics’ Library ", West
Midland Studies, IV, 1979, p. 35] the Institute had a strong
Nonconformist element in its creation and organisation. This
Liberal-Nonconformist involvement in adult education in Wolverhampton
was the start of something of a tradition, for it was just such a group
which struggled for, and finally established, the Free Library and its
evening classes over four decades later.

John Roaf.

The chapel interest on the Management Committee of
the Tradesmen's and Mechanics' Institute took the form of two
Nonconformist ministers, Stephenson Hunter and John Roaf. The
latter acted as the Institute's secretary and under his
leadership and direction the organisation was well supported and
prosperous enough by 1836 to purchase land and build premises in
the central thoroughfare known as Queen's Street.

The building
was financed by subscriptions amounting to £1,082, of which £760
was donated by the local gentry and capitalists [J. Jones op cit
p.33]. The remaining £322 was acquired through the issue of one
pound shares to the less affluent. By doing this the Institute
could claim to have the support of a variety of social classes.
A series of winter lectures was organised by Roaf's Committees
and a small library, as well as a newspaper and periodicals
reading room were opened at the new premises.

In spite of what appears to have been a very promising start, it is
strange to relate that there was an almost immediate decline in interest
in the Institute after the Queen Street building was opened. Jones
[1897] states that the young male members of the Institute failed to
attend any lectures after the first twelve months of their membership
had elapsed. "The shopkeepers who had frequented the library had ceased
to come" [Jones ibid p44, Fogarty (1979) notes that the reasons given at
the time for the decline of the Institute include the belief that the
science lectures were too academic for a poorly educated working-class
clientele. Also, despite some financial backing from the less wealthy,
the organisation failed because it lacked the widespread and vital
support of the "trading and other classes of the town on which the
success of an institution of that kind so largely depended"
[Fogerty op cit p. 33].